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Not that I find blonds the most appealing or beautiful women. I've certainly never married one; and I can't see what is so great about Madonna, or even Marilyn Monroe. I don't think Karen is the sexiest woman, just especially appealing in a particular way, both for beauty and personality.
Karen retired from modeling in 1999 but since then has actually been hospitalized for some kind of mental breakdown. I am sorry to hear it. She was evidently too delicate and vulnerable for her own good. In 2005, she has apparently recovered, but did suffer from depression and some other problems. Hopefully she is over it.
This is an especially sad aspect to the passing of the brief day of the supermodels. The likes of Karen, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell in their heyday seemed to attract a great deal of surprising and inappropriate hostility. They could be dismissed as nothing more than pretty faces and elegant bodies, but some of the people who seemed the most derisive and contemptuous about this nevertheless were still in businesses, in fashion or Hollywood, built entirely on appearances. The designers, at least, can be understood. They didn't want the fame of their models to overpower and detract from the clothes -- and from the designers.
In the subsequent generation, one of the models the closest to full supermodel status has been Gisele Bündchen. In one show a few years ago she was scheduled to model three outfits but then at the last minute was cut down to one. The designer evidently wanted to reduce her profile in the show. She walked. This clash of egos is not surprising; but when commentators who are not designers nevertheless treated the supermodels as though how dare they get so uppity and make such a big deal of themselves, there must be something going on that misses me.
The short lived Fashion Cafe (at West 51st Street and Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan) was not an embarrassing manifestation of models getting above their station. It was just what everyone else with a bit of fame tries to do: parlay the fame into a business. Unlike some of the famous, no one would ever make the mistake that the supermodels were famous just for being famous. They become famous for awesome beauty. If this was good enough for Helen of Troy, there is no reason why it should not be good enough for Kate Moss. Now, only Naomi Campbell seems to maintain a conspicuous position, and not necessarily for the best, since she has acquired a nasty reputation for her personal behavior -- although stories like his are common for many media celebrities. Otherwise, some models who thrived more discretely in the day of the supermodel, continue to work steadily as before, without the media footprint.
Alicia has recently appeared in The Sopranos on HBO, and so she got her picture in the November 2002 Maxim
It is hard to speak of beautiful women without at least mentioning Yamila Diaz [at right], Tyra Banks, Yasmeen Ghauri and Kate Moss [below]. Laetitia is from Corsica, like Napoleon Bonaparte. Indeed, "Laetitia" was the name of Napoleon's mother. She also seems to have a practical head on her, since after becoming Marianne, she immediately moved to Britain to avoid French taxes. The French government should take this to heart, though it probably won't. There are four pictures here. Click on the one at right to get another, then here are a couple of others. For a while Laetitia was just all over Victoria's Secret catalogues. Now she seems to have moved on. I haven't noticed her as much. Victoria's Secret (like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition) seems to have been friendlier to supermodels than some other venues. It has every reason to use the glamour and recognition of the models in order to present and sell the underwear. For much the same reason it is also going to have less use for the more anorexic models. If things are going to be bouncing and jiggling in the Victoria's Secret fashion show (there were complaints to the FCC), the girls need to have enough fat to convincingly bounce and jiggle. (Now, after Janet's Breast, Victoria's Secret cancelled their 2004 show -- a sad day for America.)
Well, not quite the end here, but definitely still youth. |
At right is one of the images from Carlos Cartagena. This used to be available as decals from "Slap-On Art"; but their website no longer seems to exist.
Large Version of Background Photo
magazine, at right, with other "Sopranos' Girls." This pose, hair color and all, looks rather like "The White Slave," at left, painted in 1888 by Jean- Jules- Antoine Lecomte de Noy. In 2005, Alicia has appeared in the very fine The Upside of Anger with Joan Allen and Kevin Costner (his best movie in years).
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Recently come to public attention is a beauty of a different sort, Jules Asner, who does reporting and interviews for the E! Entertainment cable network. Jules has done modeling and is certainly good looking, but her appeal is definitely more of the "girl next door" variety, and it tends to grow on one rather than overwhelm with the first strike. Perhaps it is also because I am getting older. Jules is going on 34. Some beautiful young women do not age well. Other women, good looking or not young, grow into their looks and can even be better looking older. Meryl Streep (a 49'er like myself) at 35 was much better looking than she was in her twenties. Carol Alt continues as good looking as fifteen years ago, but almost looks like a different person. While the cliché is that older men look "distinguished" or better when older and mature, while women always look better younger, this is not always the case. Nor is it just me. The photo is from Maxim magazine of November 2001, where Jules is featured on the cover -- a cover usually graced with women ten years younger. Jules has been around a bit. In fact, "Asner" comes from her ex-husband, a son of actor Ed Asner. Well, yes, it does help that Jules is in very good shape. Her sitting in short skirts on E!, showing off her legs, was one thing that got my attention. Now Jules has her own interview show and has proven herself to be rather more than just a pretty face (or nice legs).
"Getting older! Give me a break!" you say. Jules Asner is hardly over the hill. Well, maybe Nigella Lawson is closer. I have not found her birthday. The bios say she's in her "40's." She is certaintly a mother and long married. And she is definitely no Twiggy. Indeed, one of the charming things about her popular British cooking show, Nigella Bites, is not only that she is always tasting what she is cooking, but the end of the show, as the credits roll, often shows her raiding the refrigerator late at night. Nor am I alone in thinking she is attractive. Nigella has been voted one of the best looking women on British television.
Selma Blair is a lovely young actress, noteworthy in Legally Blonde [2001] and especially, sharing the lead, in Hell Boy [2004]. As beautiful as she is, she is not the sort of girl, shall we say, whose door Hugh Hefner will be beating down. It is thus endearing, if that is the right word, to see Selma in John Waters' strange new movie 
Enter Selma, now a blonde herself (though many may not even notice her hair), as Ursula Udders, an exotic dancer with unnaturally, even preternaturally, enlarged breasts -- though women not much unlike this turn up on Howard Stern. In a memorable scene, Ursula bares her chest and sports with her slobbering and worshipful fans. The skin and nipples don't look quite real, but it, or they, are otherwise impressive prostheses. Their gravity defying quality makes one wonder if there has been some wire-removal or digital enhancement. Nevertheless, the effect is remarkable, and Selma seems to be having a great deal of fun with the part. The publicity ){kind=link}
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